Wake Me Up
by GypsysGift
Summary: Sasuke Uchiha. Cold. Emotionless. Psychopathic Tendencies. But He's rapidly becoming her best friend. Maybe more than that. Too bad she's been sent by the Raikage to kill him. Sasuke/OC, AU,
1. Prologue

**Hi there people of fanfiction! Yeah that's right, it's me, I'm not actually dead! I am aware(thanks to the constant complaints I've received from various friends), that my up till now recent hiatus from fanfiction has gone on just a tad too long….. and for that, I apologize. But being on a break from writing FF has brought one good thing (unless of course you're only reading because you hate my guts and were actually kind of enjoying my absence) which is LOTS OF NEW STORY IDEAS! So expect many, many, MANY, updates in the coming days. For now, enjoy the first chapter of this, my take on a hideously overdone plot. You see, despite his total emo-ness and lack of emotions, my love for Sasuke decrees that I must help him find happiness a.k.a, romance. But seeing as I despise Sakura with the fiery passion of hell, and anything Yaoi makes me want to hurl(Actually, in all honesty, I have nothing against Yaoi, but Sasuke Yaoi is like – sacrilege. I have decided to create an OC for him. Yes. I know I've already tried this once and it failed abysmally, but it's safe to say, I'm a better writer now, than I was then, and I'm finally ready to learn from my mistakes and start again….. whether or not you consider this to be a good thing.**

**Disclaimer – I am currently sitting on my couch eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I believe it is currently 2:54 AM in Japan, so the likelihood of my either being Masashi Kishimoto who is as we all know is the owner of Naruto, is minimal. Don't sue me! : ) **

_Blood. She's covered in it. It stains her clothes bright red, paints her fingernails a dark crimson, causes a fake blush to spread across her otherwise unnaturally pale face. She almost doesn't notice it. It's not the first time she's been covered in blood. But it's the first time in her memory, that any of the blood has been her own. _

_It's so novel and different, the aching, twisting, writhing pain in her stomach – that she almost enjoys it. It's fascinating in a perverse kind of way, the way her brain seems to have shut off and the only comprehensive thought that she can come up with is 'shit that hurts'. But she knows, because she's covered in it, and because her head is rapidly beginning to spin faster and faster – that she's losing too much blood, and if she doesn't get out of there fast, she's dead. _

_He comes out of nowhere, the leaf ninja, he's so fast she can barely keep track of where he is. But her eyes are keen from years of solitary survival, and no-one, no-one is that fast. Almost no-one anyway. He's good though, she can't deny that, as his hand comes flying towards her ready for a blow that would probably break her jaw if it connected. It doesn't though, as she ducks just in time and sends a kunai flying towards his chest. He's not expecting it and as he's forced to judge the knife she bolts past him and away into the empty forest. If she had enough energy, she'd stay and finish the fight, but as the light-headedness begins to make her vision blur at the edges, she knows she doesn't have the time. Besides the tracker is close behind her, she can sense him even if she can't see him. And even if she can't see him, she knows that he can see her._

_As it is, she almost runs straight into him. He's standing perfectly still – so still she's not quite sure he's breathing. Behind him is the Kunoichi that is responsible for the massive hole in her lower left abdomen, she flicks her eyes over her face but makes no effort to memorize it. She's in no particular condition for payback at that particular moment in time. _

_Fighting with every inch of willpower she has, she tries to force her mind to focus, but it keeps slipping through her fingers, falling away from her with every passing second. Even as her fingers attempt to fumble through their numbness and grasp a kunai, his ice-white eyes lock hers in a vice-like grip and she swears mentally. If she wasn't slowly bleeding to death, she could beat him, but it would take her hours, maybe days to do it. She was beginning to doubt she had that long. _

_The fire splits the forest open like a huge black scar. Every living thing it touches screams in shock. She throws herself backwards instinctively, hitting the ground behind her with a crash that sent shudders running through every inch of her body. Scrabbling at the ground behind her, she desperately struggles to pull herself backwards away from the flames in front of her. She's too slow though, she knows that just as surely as she knows she'll never get away from them. _

_She becomes suddenly aware of someone standing right behind her just as an arm wraps it's way around her waist, pulling her upwards, helping her to stand, but her legs buckle underneath the weight of her body and he's forced to carry her, away from the flames, away from the tracker and the other leaf shinobi who are fleeing the amaterasu fires and a fight they know they can't win, as fast as their legs will carry them. _

_Eventually he stops, and she's forced to look at him. His face is pale and expressionless, but she catches a glint of something – unfamiliar and disturbing – that flares up in his onyx colored eyes before vanishing completely. He catches her looking and raises an eyebrow but not even he can stand the awkward silence that follows so he forces what just might be a smile. _

"_You look terrible," he mutters out of the corner of his mouth._

_She groans and shuts her eyes tight, unable to fight the dizziness anymore. Just before she sinks all the way into the darkness, she thanks Kami or whoever else might be listening, that she has him. He's a cold emotionless bastard, but he has impeccable timing and a rather cracking sense of humor._

_Too bad she has to kill him._


	2. Chapter 1 Trying Not To Reach

**So, for the first time in the history of ever, I actually updated within six months – that's right, Be shocked- be very shocked! anyway, so I hope you had a good Christmas everyone and are enjoying the New Year….. And a huge thank-you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter…. Reviews make me smile : ) **

**Disclaimer No Jutsu! – I do not own Naruto…. You'd know if I did, trust me : )**

**Chapter One**

**Trying Not To Reach**

Rai Haruka sighed as she collapsed down into the circular bath, that was sunk into the floor of the only room she ever really used in that old, empty house her father the Raikage had bought for her on her fifteenth birthday two years previously – a house which she'd stayed in all of twice on her only other previous visits to the village of her birth since leaving it aged thirteen. Wrapped up in almost complete darkness, she stretched her long, thin legs out into the hot, almost scalding, water and tried not to think of all the places she'd rather be but there, in the village where she'd buried so many secrets she couldn't remember whether there was anyone there she hadn't lied to.

Trying to distract herself, she ran a thumb over the four jagged scars on her left arm. Four. The number of Kage's the Land of Lightning had had since the founding of its shinobi village. The number of elder siblings she'd once had, all but one of them lost in a battle against the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The number of years she'd been an assassin, killing off people who angered or posed a threat to her father. The number of years since the village elders had decided her particular talent for killing without leaving a trail – for discreet murders no-one could trace, for tailing a target for months on end without once losing sight of them, or once being caught herself – was more than just useful, it was essential to the welfare of the village.

Aged thirteen and only just a chunnin, Rai had needed no more training, she'd mastered more jutsu than most jonin twice her age, so they gave her her first mission – and she'd performed flawlessly. Maybe too flawlessly.

Restlessly, she pushed her long, dark brown hair away from her face, out of her sea-green eyes. Her face was heart-shaped, so fine it was almost delicate, her eyes so round above her angular cheekbones, they seemed much larger than they actually were. There were people who said she looked like her mother – not that she'd know, given her mother had died soon after she was born – but regardless of that, she knew they were lying. There was something in her bone-structure, some ruthlessness in her otherwise innocent eyes, that screamed of her father, the monster that had made her who she was.

Footsteps in the hall broke through her thoughts, shattering them into pieces as her instincts kicked in faster than her mind knew how to. From the pile of clothes on the floor behind her, she retrieved a kunai, clutching it in one hand, she sat immobile in the water and waited.

A few seconds later she mentally kicked herself as she recognized the slow, sweet voice of the maid that cared for her during her sporadic returns home. _'You're getting paranoid'_ she muttered to herself. _'Not enough sleep, too much time out in the field.' _Rai almost laughed at herself. It was odd that the line between the field of duty and the theoretical comparative safety of her home could become so unclear.

"This message just came for you, lady," the maid sing-songed from the other side of the door as Rai dropped the kunai onto the side of the bath.

"Slip it under the door," she sighed, unwilling to go through the effort of coercing her aching body to move. Clearly, she was obliging, as two seconds later, there was the rasp of paper on stone. Stretching one hand back, Rai snatched a slip of gold card off of the floor between two fingers. Trying not to splash and soak it, sheleant back and held it up in front of her. On it, in black writing that looked more like a four-year olds first attempt to write than the script of a grown man, were two words. A name.

_**Sasuke Uchiha**_

Screw it. She should have known.

XXX

**(Requiem)**

Sasuke, Suigetsu and Juugo stood in a half circle around their fallen comrade. Juugo's dark red eyes were marked with pain, though Suigetsu only looked vaguely baffled and Sasuke downright indifferent.

"She was asking for it Juugo," Suigetsu muttered. "She went too far, she should have known that Killer Bee was too much for her."

"She saved Sasuke's life," sniffed Juugo.

"He'd have been fine," Suigetsu drawled.

He was lying. Sasuke wouldn't have been fine. He'd horribly misjudged his and his teammates abilities, he'd totally screwed with the plan until it was amazing they'd managed to capture Killer Bee at all. Sasuke knew that, he knew it all too well. But that didn't bother him, not right then. What bothered him was that he could see it, that moment where, as they dragged Killer Bee off, he went for Sasuke. He could see Karin jump in front of him, twisting as the kunai he'd managed to produce out of nowhere, embedded itself right in her chest – only to fall, motionless at Sasuke's feet as Killer Bee high-tailed it away from the group. That moment kept playing, over and over again inside his head. And he had totally no idea how he felt about it.

XXX

**(If you can't trust anyone at all, trust your family)**

Screw it. She should have known. How was it she hadn't guessed, what with her father calling her back to Kumogakure, something he rarely ever did – how could she not have worked it out, when she hadn't been asked to see her family in years.

They hadn't wanted to see her. Her father and her older sister, they hadn't wanted her around. They hadn't even wanted her. All they'd wanted was the same as all they ever wanted. Someone to get rid of all the nasty little problems for them, so that they wouldn't have to do it themselves.

"Oh _what_ a surprise." Rai muttered to herself.

She wondered absently whether they even cared that the person they were sending her after this time was an S-ranked criminal. Not that it mattered to her, it wouldn't be the first time, but some sort of worry or anxiety wouldn't have been out of order.

That's when she realized, with a start, that this was the first time in four years, that she'd actively known why she was being sent to kill the person she was being sent to kill. Sasuke Uchiha had tried to kidnap her uncle, the eight-tails jinjuriki and from what she'd heard, he'd come damned close.

She hadn't liked her uncle Killer Bee, in fact, she positively hated him – he was far too like her father for her liking. But he was family, and seeing as she didn't have anybody else, he was important. She understood now, why they'd bothered to call her back in the first place. This was a matter of family, and that made it personal.

With a cacophony of mini splashes, Rai got to her feet, shaking the water droplets off her body. Dressing quickly, she opened the door with a crash. "Don't wait up for me," she called to her maid, who had been sent scurrying off by the explosive noise of the door opening. "I'm leaving."

Sasuke Uchiha wouldn't know what hit him.

**So….. what did you think? Did you like the Point of view switches? It was just something I thought I'd experiment with… so I'd really appreciate comments on that! Reviews are like cookies… white chocolate chip cookies, they make me smile : ) OH and extra cookies for anyone who can guess what song the chapter title comes from…. : )**


	3. Chapter 2 It Doesn't Hurt Me

**Well…. I actually updated within six months again! Shock, horror I know….. but I REALLY love this story, so it's no surprise. I hope you enjoy this latest installment… I'm really actually quite proud of it for a change :) **

**Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto, all OC's belong to me…**

**Chapter Two**

**It Doesn't Hurt Me**

Human beings are notorious for the fact that you can never predict what they are going to do. They change their minds, have changes of heart, changes of opinion, fall in love. As an assassin, Rai thrived on that unpredictability. There was no guarantee that Sasuke Uchiha would be here she knew that. But she would bet everything she had, that he was.

It had been easy enough to find people who knew him. He'd been very smart about who he chose to trust, she would give him that. Even Sasuke Uchiha needed supplies, but his suppliers were each and every one of them on the other side of the law already, they had nothing to lose by trusting him and no reason to love anyone who might come looking for him. Luckily, she wasn't cursed with what the Leaf Village called 'honor' so Rai had always preferred resorting to pain instead of love anyway and they had been all too happy to tell her what she wanted to know.

The town was an industrial community, near the Land of Tea, and in stark contrast to many of the villages she'd visited, it was thriving – the war had done it nothing but good, people were in need of weapons these days, and were willing to pay big money for it too if she could believe what she'd been told. As such, the central square was large and bustling with people, an unlikely spot for an S-ranked criminal to arrange a meeting with an associate perhaps, but Rai guessed he was taking the gamble that there was security in numbers. Hoisting herself up onto a rooftop directly above the square, she allowed herself a smile. It was a good gamble, but not good enough, because she too was an expert at not being seen. So she knew _exactly _what to look for.

XXX

_(Playing the Game)_

His associate was nervous. Sasuke could see that from the get-go. That wasn't unusual, lots of them were relatively new to the world of slightly-less than legal activity, but he had money and _lots_ of it. And he would only be too grateful for the favor Sasuke was about to do him, of that he was sure.

From his vantage point of a bench right in the middle of the square, Sasuke could see everything and everyone around him. Feigning only gentle curiosity, he flicked his eyes to where Juugo was idly pretending to be examining the contents of a shop window, his heightened senses assured him Suigetsu was where he'd left him, watching his back. Sasuke relaxed slightly on the inside. If anything was coming, they would spot it, though the likelihood of him needing their eyes was minimal. His own were, after all, more than a bit remarkable.

He turned to his client. A thin, twitchy-looking man perched right on the edge of the bench, as far away as he could get from Sasuke, he certainly didn't look promising. But he trusted Suigetsu's promise that he would be more than willing to get him what he wanted, so he was prepared to hear the client out.

"So tell me," he said lazily. "How much would I get paid for this again?". The client turned to look at him - eyes rabbit caught in headlights wide, Sasuke couldn't help but smile to himself. It seemed like every time he spoke to this guy, he started shaking. He wondered what Suigetsu had told him would happen to his new client if he pissed him off.

"Mr. Uchiha –,"

"Sasuke. Uchiha. Mr. Uchiha was my father and he's just a little bit dead now. Not my handiwork I assure you." He loathed himself for speaking of his parents murder like that, but he'd learnt that if there was one way to make someone fear you, hinting at mental instability was always good.

"Erm – OK," it was official, Sasuke was definitely scaring him now. Good. That was how he liked them. "The thing is Mr. – Sasuke, mine is a rather dire situation – yes, rather dire indeed, and I desperately need some kind of help."

"Yes, yes, how much was it?"

"Anything. Any amount. I will pay you any amount you can name. Price is not the problem."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. Something was wrong. His client had stiffened, his gaze fixed straight ahead of him, the breath whistling up and down his throat so quickly it sounded like he might choke.

"What is the problem then?" he tried to keep his voice calm, conversational, his eyes scanning the square all the while. Extending one hand behind his back, he gestured to Suigetsu to alert Juugo.

"Mr. Asari." It was the first time he'd used the other man's name, all attempts to unnerve him were behind them now, he was clearly unnerved enough all by himself.

"Mr. Asari, who did you say was trying to kill you?"

Slowly, robotically, the other man turned his head to stare straight into Sasuke's eyes, his own empty chasms of hopelessness. When he replied, it was not the answer Sasuke had been hoping for.

"I'm afraid it's too late Mr. Uchiha. They're already here."

He caught sight of the two Leaf Ninja just as Suigetsu and Juugo did. They both darted looks over their shoulders at him, waiting for orders. Sasuke darted a glance back towards Asari. To his horror, the other man had pulled a kunai seemingly out of thin air. His mind, numb with shock was just able to process that once again, one of his plans hadn't worked out as intended, before the kunai, lightning fast, was severing the throat of the man wielding it. _It was all a trap_, he thought to himself. Well shit.

XXX

_(Awake and Alive)_

Rai saw the leaf ninja heading for Uchiha at roughly the same time as he did. Cursing under her breath, she scrambled off of the rooftop as Uchiha and his two comrades began to run. Of course, they were wanted criminals, she reminded herself, there was no way they'd want to stay and attract attention to themselves. Crashing heavily to the ground, she forced herself not to lose balance, all the time keeping her eyes fixed on Uchihas rapidly retreating back. She had to dance and weave her way through the throngs of people flocking through the square, but at least the Leaf Ninja had to do the same. As long as she didn't lose Uchiha, it would all be fine.

She knew what her father would think if Sasuke Uchiha was killed by Leaf Ninja. Konoha, vain as they were, would almost certainly proclaim his death to all of the Shinobi Nations, and that was exactly what the Raikage didn't want. He wanted something quick and discreet, something that no-one would have to know about. Flaunting his death in the faces of the Akatsuki was almost certain to have negative effects for everyone even remotely involved, and the Land of Lightning was sure to get tasked with the cleanup, that's what they seemed to spend most of their time doing these days – cleaning up Konohagakure's mistakes because The Fifth didn't have the ability to do it herself.

She was beginning to gain on the slower of the two Leaf Ninja as they lead her into a complicated labyrinth of alleyways. His comrade was far ahead of him, doggedly following Uchiha around a corner. She would deal with him in a second.

Throwing caution to the wind, Rai hurled herself forward through the air, tackling the shinobi in front of her. "What the hell are you doing?" he gasped as she dragged him down to the ground. Whilst she deftly rolled back onto her feet on impact, he hit the pavement with a painful-sounding thud. "You know that guy you're chasing?" she muttered through gritted teeth as she straddled his body.

He was not quite winded enough to be beyond cockiness, that was something you could always take for granted about Leaf Ninja, they liked to go out with a bang.

"Sure, Sasuke Uchiha. We're gonna kill him like the traitor like he is." He made a valiant effort of trying to throw her off of him, but she merely grinned and slammed the heel of her hand into his stomach, winding him once more so that he collapsed back down, breathless.

"Sounds like fun. Too bad though. I really can't let you do that."

The other shinobi tried to mutter something through his breathlessness that sounded like 'try and stop me'.

"Well if you insist," she smiled, before plunging a kunai into his chest cavity.

"This was fun," she assured him as she got elegantly to her feet. She did so prefer it when things were that easy.

The sound of clashing steel filled in her ears as she began to follow the route the fallen ninja's comrade had taken. In the next alley along, Uchiha and his comrades were at odds with the Leaf Ninja. It looked like they were handling themselves with ease, but there was something wrong – something rigid about the way the shinobi was holding himself – like he had a bag strapped to his chest. Or a bomb.

XXX

_(Only. Violence.)_

The Leaf Ninja was good, Sasuke would give him that, too bad he just wasn't quite good enough. None of his blows so much as touched Sasuke, but he'd landed several, as had Juugo and Suigetsu.

"I'll tell you what," he drawled as he kicked the other ninja to his knees. "Seeing as you've fought so bravely – I'm going to kill you nice and quick."

"I'll bear that statement in mind when I'm dragging your cold, dead body through the streets of Konoha," The Leaf Ninja spat as Sasuke pulled his katana from his sheath.

"Charming. Did you come up with that pleasant little image all by yourself?" Without waiting for an answer, he gestured to Suigetsu. "You heard the man, he's all yours." Bearing shark-like teeth, deep purple eyes glinting maniacally, his comrade stepped forward eagerly.

The Leaf Ninja stuck his hand under his vest, a sudden look of concentration furrowing his brow as the sound of rustling paper filled the air. Suigetsu tilted his head back and laughed, the sound grating and painful like storm-waves over sharp rocks. "What is that – your will?" He leant forward so that he was looking the Leaf shinobi straight in the eye. "Trust me. When I'm done with you, they won't even be able to identify your body. No-ones going to give a damn what you've left behind." He seemed to find this idea even more hilarious because he started laughing again, Juugo joining in uneasily as if Suigetsu had just made some deeply intellectual and thought-provoking joke that he couldn't quite understand. But with a shock like lightning, Sasuke realized exactly what it was the shinobi was reaching for.

"Get down!" he screamed, pushing Juugo to his knees with one arm whilst reaching for the back of Suigetsu's shirt with the other. The leaf ninja had paper bombs shoved up his shirt. Of course. His comrade had been suicidal, why not him as well. He was really not having a good day. Staggering backwards, he was just about to throw himself to the ground when a crash filled the air, the noise reverberating off the buildings on either side of him, making his ears explode in a cacophony of ringing noises.

The noise wasn't an explosion, however, instead it was the sound of the Leaf Ninja tumbling face forwards into the concrete pavement, blood shooting out of the shuriken wound in his back that must have killed him instantly.

The person who'd made the kill shot was standing no more than a few inches away from the fallen, Sasuke had no idea how they'd gotten there so quietly, only ghosts moved that quickly.

The girl before him, however, was no ghost. She must have been around his age he supposed, but she was a good head shorter than him. Her slim body was strong, and packed with muscle, yet she still looked somehow – fragile. Sasuke was guessing that that was just appearances being deceiving though, because the blood spatter on the front of her black shirt and the fire burning in the pits of her dark blue-green eyes suggested nothing even remotely breakable about the person before her.

She surveyed him coolly, as he did her, appraising him for weaknesses no doubt. She was definitely a ninja this one. He pulled a slight face. Shame really, she was pretty, stunning actually, it was almost a waste to have to kill her.

XXX

_(A Deal With God) _

Rai saw Uchiha's freakish blonde cohort coming at her almost before he'd decided that was what he was going to do. Ducking, she sprang out of the way. Snarling, he spun on his heel and thrust one hand into her hair, seizing it by the roots and forcing her head backwards. Hissing with pain, she allowed her entire body to go limp for a second, hoping trick him into loosening his grip. Unfortunately for him it worked. Pulling her lips backwards into an equally ferocious grimace she swung an elbow back into his stomach, feeling him stagger backwards, she grabbed the hand wrapped up in her hair and bent the fingers at an angle, one by one. Swinging her other arm around, she pushed him in what she reckoned was the vague direction of the wall, twisting painfully as she did so. Slamming him into the bricks, she whipped a kunai out, resting the tip in the soft hollow of his throat.

"That _hurt _Bastard," she growled. "A _lot._ Do it again and it'll be the last thing you do." A chuckle like a death rattle rose in his throat and she pressed the kunai harder against his flesh. Before she could deliver the kill blow, however, a strong arm was wrapping itself around her waist, a vice like grip securing itself over her hand, forcing her away from the wall.

"Well, well, well." Sasuke Uchihas perfectly expressionless drawl said softly into her ear. "That isn't something I get to see everyday." Louder, he added to his blonde friend. "I hate to alarm you Suigetsu, but you just got beaten by a girl."

Suigetsu shuddered with rage, stepping forward so she could smell the ever-so-slightly putrid reek of his fetid breath. "Who the hell are you?"

Uchiha chuckled. "That is no way to speak to such a pretty young lady." He leveled a katana with her throat. "But I have to agree with my esteemed colleague – who the hell are you?"

She squirmed against his grip. "The person that just saved you from death by Leaf Ninja you ungrateful bastard." Uchiha's other companion, the tall, red-headed man, darted a nervous look at Uchiha, as if he expected him to explode at the statement. Or kill her. Maybe he thought he'd kill her.

Instead he just sighed. "That." He said. "Is an _awfully _long name - what were your parents thinking?"

She rolled her eyes to the heavens. "It's Rai." She growled. "And do us both a favor, don't try and be funny. It doesn't suit you Uchiha."

"You know who I am?" He kept his tone light and conversational, but Rai just managed to detect a faint trace of surprise in there.

"Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I'm an idiot."

She could feel him nod towards the katana pressed against her throat. "Really?"

"She is right, Sasuke," his red-headed friend spoke hesitantly, almost reverently, Rai noticed. "She did save our lives." Sasuke inclined his head. "Very true Juugo." To Rai he added. "And why did you do that again?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Well I would actually."

_Oh no you wouldn't._ She thought to herself. She wasn't sure what to do. There was no way she could kill him, right there and then, with his comrades standing by. She was relatively sure she could take them, but didn't want to think what the risk might mean. That's when the idea struck her.

"I killed him because I – I want to join you."

"You want to what?"

It was Suigetsu who spoke this time, positively spitting he looked so angry. The red-head, Juugo, however, looked more thoughtful. "She's a good fighter," he said tentatively. "She beat Suigetsu. And since – since Karin, we need another set of kunai."

"No." Uchiha's voice was just as expressionless as ever, but it cut through Juugo's musings and Suigetsu's outrage like a knife, silencing them instantly. His word, it seemed, was law.

"Excuse me?"

"No." He said again, this time directly into her ear, for only her to hear.

"I saved your life."

"You've said." Sighing, he withdrew his katana. "And I suppose I should be grateful. Go on. Leave. This once, we won't kill you, you have our collective word – well, Juugo's word, mines not worth much and I doubt you'd care very much about Juugo's, but still – I digress, get out of here."

He moved away from her, as if he could no longer bear to so much as stand close to her. Rai struggled to regain control over the situation. This was her opportunity, her golden opportunity, she _needed_ this, loathe as she was to admit it, he'd been hard enough to find in the first place, she wasn't going to just let him slip away.

"Why?" she pushed the desperation out of her voice, forcing herself to sound bored, calm, only vaguely interested. Sasuke Uchiha wasn't the only person who could keep the emotion out of their voice.

He rolled his eyes, clearly becoming bored of the scenario. "I need people fighting with me I can trust, I don't give a damn how good a fighter you are, if I can't trust you, you're worthless."

"You can trust me." The lie should have sounded hollow and empty, she knew that, but somehow, something had leaked into her voice that she wasn't quite sure she knew how to control. And it made that statement sound very convincing.

Even Uchiha seemed to think so. The bored expression slipped off his face briefly, and it was like someone had removed a mask. He was gorgeous, any idiot could see that, but when he was genuinely interested in something, he was almost a different person. "Why's that?" The sudden interest in his voice made his two friends stop what they were doing to stare at him, intent on his every word. He was like God to them, Rai sensed, whatever he decided, they would agree on. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to meet Uchiha's impossibly dark eyes.

"I haven't tried to kill you yet, have I?"

Something like the ghost of a smile played on the corners of Sasuke's mouth. It was gone before she could confirm what she'd seen, but Rai was sure that it'd been there.

The silence between them extended on for what felt like years, but Rai forced herself not to blink, or to look away from Uchiha's fathomless gaze. Eventually, his reply came, a short black full stop at the end of their conversation.

"Deal," he said.

**Reviews make me smile…. Smiling is good for the soul….. So review? Please? **


	4. Chapter 4 It's All The Same To Me

**And here is chapter three! Just a little chapter this time, a longer one to come – with actual Sasuke- Rai one on one interaction! Shocking I know….:) **

**Disclaimer – I don't own Naruto in any way, all OC's belong to me : )**

**Chapter Three **

**It's all the Same To Me**

The little girl had round green eyes that glittered and shone like nothing Rai had ever seen before in her life, her hair was somewhere between red and orange, bright and glowing as a flame. At about eight years old, she was absolutely stunning, and as far as Rai could see, positively terrified.

Not that Rai could blame her. The little girl was trussed up like a chicken in the middle of their current camp, totally out of place amongst the mess of sleeping blankets, stray weapons and…. other items of a less than savory nature. Tears trickled down her face in a steady stream as she gazed up at Suigetsu. Rai shook her head, disbelief splashed across her face. "You have got to be kidding me."

Suigetsu grinned his crooked shark-toothed grin. "Oh don't be so _pathetic_. This is brilliant!"

She raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me? She's like eight – how is she in anyway useful." Suddenly, a thought popped into her mind. Narrowing her eyes, she took a deep breath. "You truly are a horrendously sick bastard, Suigetsu."

"Can't say I disagree, but in this case Rai, he has a point." Lightning quick, Sasuke had appeared behind the little girl, Juugo right next to him. "You see Rai," he smirked down at her. "This is not just some eight year old, this, is Cariba Watanabe, the daughter of an ambassador."

"A very _rich _ambassador," Suigetsu added with a smirk.

Closing her eyes with a pained expression, Rai buried her face in her hands. She had been travelling with Uchiha and his cohorts for a full two months, and every conversation ended like this. She said something, Suigetsu disagreed with her, Sasuke sided with Suigetsu. And Sasuke was the leader, his word was of course, _law. _Juugo and Suigetsu followed him around like little dogs, scurrying to fulfill his every wish, the only times they ever left him alone, he vanished for hours on end, and Rai hadn't yet been able to work out where it was he went.

"I don't think she likes the plan Sasuke," she heard Suigetsu chuckling to himself. Mustering all the contempt she was capable of feeling, she opened her eyes slowly, fixing Suigetsu with a steely glare. " Well excuse me if I can think of better things to do with my time than torture eight year olds. Then again - ," she raised an eyebrow at the glowering shinobi sitting across from her. "I hear you did spend a fair amount of time around Orochimaru himself, so I suppose you aren't entirely to blame for your er… interesting tastes."

For a second, Rai thought Suigetsu was going to kill her. Almost as soon as the words had left her mouth, he sprang forward and this time she didn't get out of the way fast enough. His weight pinning her to the ground, rendering her almost incapable of moving, Suigetsu drove one fist hard into her stomach. Feeling all the oxygen crushed out of her body, she panicked, letting her instincts take over before she was fully aware of what was happening.

Reaching out with one arm, the only limb that hadn't been trapped against the ground, she drove the side of her hand into the small hollow where Suigetsu's neck joined to the rest of his body. The shock to one of his pressure points sent pain sparking through his violet eyes, bringing a tight smile to Rai's mouth. Let him hurt. With all the strength she had, she brought her left leg up, and kicked him away from her, flipping him over so she was pinning _him _to the ground, instead of the other way around. Blood pounding in her ears, she reached behind her for a kunai.

"Stab him and I'll have Juugo break your neck." Sasuke's voice hadn't changed tone, it had the same light, conversational air it had had when he'd last spoken, but there was no doubt in anyone's minds that he was no longer teasing her, he meant every word of his threat and Rai could only guess at how much he'd like to act on it. She wasn't sure if she cared. More than anything else in the world, she hated it when people, and it always seemed to be men, tried to beat her into submission, either verbally, or like Suigetsu, literally. Her father had tried both ways, no-one else would get away with it. "I'm not going to sit there and let him beat me up." She hissed, not meeting Sasuke's eye.

"Then stop giving him reasons to. Oh wait, that would be the smart thing to do and you never seem able to handle that, do you?" He was only trying to irritate her enough to get her to back down, Rai knew that, but no matter how much she tried to tell herself it didn't matter, how often she reminded her smarting ego that she was only biding her time until she killed him, the words still stung. Sasuke Uchiha had the most amazing gift of making everything he said hurt, even when the person he was speaking to didn't give a damn whether he lived or died.

Loathing herself for it, she pushed herself to her feet, stepping away from Suigetsu and dropping the kunai with a clatter. There was a long silence before anyone spoke. "Suigetsu," Sasuke barked. "We need to hide the girl, then get a message to her daddy we have her, come with me we'll do that now." Muttering incessantly to himself, Suigetsu did as he was bid, scrambling to his feet and seizing the little girl by the scruff of her neck. Screeching, she began to writhe against his grip, but unlike Rai, she wasn't strong enough to break free. "Juugo," Sasuke continued. "Have a scout around, make sure the area's clear, we could definitely do without unwanted guests right now. Rai, make yourself useful and do something about food, try not to attack anything while we're gone."

"I can't wait to kill you," she whispered to herself as they cleared the camp.

_(How Long Will You Hide Your Face?)_

"She's a total menace Sasuke, she's going to kill somebody and I know that's not normally something we frown upon, but she's – she's just downright dangerous!" Suigetsu stared at him, his eyes practically flashing outrage. Tightening the slip of paper around the messenger hawks leg, Sasuke said nothing.

"I don't even know what she wants with us, I mean she's clearly nothing to do with the Akatsuki and as for that crap about wanting to join us, she just didn't want you to kill her! I for one, do not trust her, we're better off if she just clears off."

"You heard Juugo, we need all the fighters we can get, and whatever you think of her, she's definitely a fighter."

"She's ridiculous!"

"I seem to remember you saying the same about Karin."

That stopped Suigetsu in his tracks. Whatever he had said about the red haired Kunoichi, there had been something between them, even Sasuke could see it, and he had never been good with those kinds of things. Closing his eyes, Suigetsu took a deep breath. "Karin was, different, she – she was an idiot, but she wasn't dangerous, I don't think she ever wanted any of this."

"And you think Rai does?" It was hard to keep the curiosity out of his voice. Sasuke was getting pretty good at shutting himself off, pretty good at not allowing himself to care about anything, but there was something about the Kunoichi, something – something he couldn't explain. She fascinated him almost as much as she irritated him, and he had a feeling that was the only reason she was still alive.

"I think," Suigetsu paused. "I think that whatever Rai wants, it's not good, for us or her. Something's messed her up pretty bad and -,"

"You can't judge her by how messed up or not she is Suigetsu." Sasuke startled himself by how ready he was to defend Rai, who, even after two months, he didn't know at all, but there was no denying the truth of those words. Sasuke Uchiha didn't do emotions, but he did do truth.

Suigetsu had been a test experiment, the one person with the power to help him had turned Juugo into a monster, Rai had obviously had something just as screwed up happen to her. Every single one of them was messed up in some way or another.

And Sasuke, Sasuke was more messed up than any of them put together. That he admitted freely.

_(Sitting Here In Silence)_

Rai had allowed herself to become so engrossed in her anger, let her mind become so entranced with working out the flaws in her ever-growing plan to kill Sasuke, that she almost didn't notice Juugo as he appeared out of nowhere and sat quietly beside her.

"Are you ok?" he almost whispered. Rai stared at him, incredulous. She liked Juugo best out of all the three rogue ninja, but that had always been because he _seemed _like the most decent of the three, and even that presumption was based on the fact that he mostly didn't speak to her. Meeting his maroon eyes for perhaps the first time, she took a deep breath and forced her mouth into a small smile. "I'm fine."

"They don't mean it you know, not any of it. Suigetsu's a little insane, but he's not so far gone he doesn't know when to quit, and Sasuke-,"

"I'm pretty sure Sasuke meant what he said," she said softly. "He'll kill me, Juugo, and it won't mean a thing to him." _And I feel pretty much the same way about him, but of course I can't tell you that._

"He's not an entirely bad guy, Rai, truly he isn't. Totally and utterly screwed up, I won't fight you on that one, but then, who could blame him. But he's not an utterly bad guy. He wouldn't have made me hurt you unless you actually had killed Suigetsu, but you wouldn't have done that anyway, would you?"

"Honestly Juugo, I don't give a damn about anything Sasuke or Suigetsu say. Nothing they say can hurt me." _Almost nothing anyway._

Juugo cocked his head a tiny bit, suddenly studying her intently. "So what does hurt you?"

"Excuse me?"

He shrugged. "Something's bothering you, Rai, I'd like to help, if I can."

She shook her head, he was being nice, she could tell that, but there was nothing she was willing to tell him. _Some things just have to stay private. _

Juugo smiled encouragingly, he obviously thought she was nervous. "You can trust me." And just like that, it slipped out. Rai had never, ever spoken to anyone about how she felt about things, she'd never even spent much time thinking about it herself. There had never been anyone she could speak to, who wouldn't judge her, wouldn't think to reprimand her for being too soft, too weak. And Juugo was a good audience.

"I don't get close to people, I just don't." She began slowly. "Life is better, and so much simpler when I'm on my own. I don't like to let things get to me. I don't care what they say – but, but whatever it is they think of me, I am so much more than that." She couldn't believe what she was saying, couldn't understand the words slipping out of her mouth. "I'm not just some piece in someone else's life, in someone else's plans, I'm a person." She dropped her gaze for a second, mind buzzing. "Juugo, I'm a person."

"Yeah you are," he smiled, but his smile was troubled. "But you don't seem like a very happy person to me."

Before she could say anything else, he stood up abruptly. "Maybe you just need a break, go for a walk or something, I'll finish up here." Automatically, unthinkingly, mind still fixated on what the hell it was she'd just said, the huge mess of feelings inside of her body writhing and twisting about, she did as she was told.

_You don't seem like a very happy person to me. _

**So I know nothing much really happened in this chapter, but it's setting things up for the coming action, and also for Rai eventually realizing that she's not actually happy living her life the way she is (Can you blame her?) review if you want to know what happens next? : )**


	5. Chapter 5 I Will Shut The World Away

**So… I promise next chapter will be a long one in which real action ACTUALLY happens… but I felt it necessary to write a quick chapter just devoted to Sasuke….because I agree with the anonymous reviewer last chapter who said his segments were a bit…. Well cliché…. I hope this is an improvement and you'll put up with the pathetic short chapter because the next one will have more action!**

**Chapter Four**

**I will Shut The World Away**

Just in case anyone felt like disputing the fact, Sasuke Uchiha didn't do feelings. It was so much easier, so much more _effective,_ to shut emotion out, to not let anything get in the way of what you wanted. Anger, admittedly, had its place in his life, but above all, Sasuke was cold, calm, driven. And if being all those things meant being alone, then he guessed that's what it took.

_Being alone made him strong_. It made him Sasuke. Any curiosity, no matter how innocent, he might feel for certain members of his team, could only weaken him. That was the honest to God truth.

So when Rai and Juugo began to have long conversations every evening, Sasuke bit back the question as soon as it began to form on the tip of his tongue. When Suigetsu made a joke that was so un-terrible it was almost good, and in response Rai cracked what might just have been a grin, Sasuke simply turned his back on the first expression of happiness he'd seen from her, and pretended it had never happened.

Rai was fascinating because she was different. She wasn't Sakura, who had always been too fragile to be a shinobi and she wasn't Karin, who had always been too blinded by love or lust or whatever it was. She was… something else entirely. But that wasn't the point. No matter what she did, Sasuke was going to stay focused; he was going to remain emotionless. He would not be affected. Because that was what made him strong.

_(Peace, Serenity… almost)_

The forest was perfectly quiet, perfectly still. As Rai crept forward through the dense undergrowth, almost as silent as a shadow herself, she imagined she could practically hear the wing beats of the hawks as they glided through the air, the soft thrum the feathers would make as they sliced through the sky perfectly in time with her own heartbeat.

There was a cacophony of tiny crashing noises as Suigetsu practically fell across the forest floor to tumble into place right behind her. Leaping about a foot in the air, Rai gestured wildly at him to be quiet. In response to the look of confusion he sent her, she grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him down towards her so that she didn't have to reach up on tiptoes to hiss into his ear. _"What are you – crazy?" _

"There's no-one here," he replied at a normal volume, disentangling himself irritatedly from her grip. She sighed contemptuously. "Not now, but there _was._" Rai gestured at the ground in front of them. Something, or someone had clearly disturbed the undergrowth, there were snapped twigs littered across the bed of leaves, as well as something that might just have been a footprint.

"But by the looks of it," she gestured to the otherwise empty forest. "Whoever was here, is gone. Probably frightened off by the racket you raised to get here."

Suigetsu shrugged. "Big deal, Sasuke will be able to pick up the trail." Rai snorted. "Screw that, _I_ can do it, no problem, no need to wait for Sasuke."

"Don't let _him_ hear you say that," Juugo shuffled through the leaves, to his credit at least _trying _to be more stealthy than Suigetsu. They might have been professional killers, but assassins they most definitely could not have been. "He's secretly very sensitive about these things."

Rai and Suigetsu snorted simultaneously. "Of course he is," spluttered Suigetsu.

Shaking her head incredulously at the pair of them Rai rolled her eyes. "Right. _I _am going to go check out that clearing," she said, pointing to show in which direction she meant. "You guys can come or not, but whatever you do, do it _quietly_."

With that, she crept forward through the shadows, bent almost double, eyes darting back and forth across the forest. Coming to a stop about a yard from the clearing, she paused, surveying the area intently.

"Well that's not good," she said softly.

"What's not good?" once more, Juugo made a valiant effort of trying to move as effortlessly as he could, but he still made what sounded like a horrific noise to Rai's oversensitive eardrums. Silently, she pointed forward. The clearing led to a gorge, and in that gorge were –

"Crap that's a lot of shinobi."

"Yeah. My thoughts exactly."

Rai flicked a questioning glance over her shoulder at Suigetsu. "I thought you said people didn't come into this forest."

The rogue shinobi shook his head. "They don't, that's why Sasuke picked this place to swap the little girl for the money."

Rai raised her eyebrows and grimaced. "Looks like Daddy didn't want to wait."

_(Leave it Colder) _

Sasuke's plan for destroying the Leaf Village was simple, if not wonderfully basic. If he could manage to secure the backing of the other Akatsuki, it should be relatively easy, almost effortless, to wreak his revenge on the murderers who'd destroyed his clan. But securing the help of the Akatsuki was going to be no easy matter, especially after the killer bee incident, which was why he needed the money.

The ambassadors little girl had seemed such an easy target, her father was reportedly a peaceable man who would have been all too happy to pay the really rather reasonable ransom that had been requested of him. Sasuke didn't know what had gone wrong, and frankly he didn't want to. All he knew was that he'd made another idiot mistake and it seemed to be becoming a habit.

"So what are we gonna do?" hissed Suigetsu. "Is there going to be a fight?"

"No." Sasuke said, breathing deeply and surveying them all with his most penetrating stare. "It's not that I don't think you can take them," he said quickly, as Suigetsu opened his mouth to protest. "But if what you're all describing as something like a small army of shinobi is waiting out there, then if we kill them _all,_ soon enough everyone in the area will know we're here, and that should be the last thing any of us want." He shot cautionary looks at all of them in turn, taking great pains to hold Rai's gaze for as long as he could.

He was testing himself, you see, because part of him, the part that always insisted on searching for the rational behind everything he did, insisted that the only thing he found interesting about Rai was that she was a very pretty girl. And the easiest way to stop caring about something, is to de-sensitize yourself to it, so that it stops bothering you. It would have helped more if he could have worked out what it was about her green-grey eyes that bothered him so much though.

He suddenly realized that someone was talking to him. "You should have seen Rai today, Sasuke," Juugo chattered, seemingly relived now he knew what the vague game plan was. "I've never seen someone move that quietly before, it was like she wasn't there – how the hell did you learn to do that?" He added this last to Rai, who looked up only briefly from the kunai she was sharpening to shrug half-heartedly. "Practice." She replied.

Suigetsu shook his head. "Somebody must have taught you, that's not something you can learn all by yourself."

Smiling, she set the kunai aside and tipped her head back to yawn, the tangle of her dark hair tumbling down her back as she did so. "What is this – twenty questions?"

Suigetsu grinned twistedly. "All right then, if that's what you want, lets play us some twenty questions."

_Let's not, _Sasuke thought to himself. The less you know about someone, the easier it is not to care. The easier it is not to _want_ to be their friend. He hadn't known that when he was part of team 7, he'd thought just distancing himself from the others would be enough, enough not to let them distract him from his mission. Enough to mean that nothing could never hurt him the same way his parents murder had, ever again.

He'd been wrong. He'd gotten too close to Naruto and Sakura, learnt too much about them. Maybe that was just a side-effect of having grown up with them, he didn't know. What he did know, though, was that there were days when even he, with his many years of practice, found it hard not to think about his friends.

_Let's play 20 questions._

_Let's Not. _


End file.
